Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus and an ink jet recording method.
Description of the Related Art
In an ink jet recording method, a liquid composition containing a coloring material (ink) is directly or indirectly applied onto a recording medium such as paper to form an image. During the process, the recording medium may excessively absorb a liquid component in the ink, thereby causing curing or cockling.
In order to immediately remove the liquid component in an ink to suppress such trouble, there are a method of drying a recording medium by using warm air, infrared light, or a similar technique and a method in which an image is formed on a transfer body, then a liquid component contained in the image on the transfer body is dried by thermal energy or the like, and the image is transferred to a recording medium such as paper. Another method is disclosed as the technique of removing the liquid component contained in an image on a transfer body without using thermal energy. In the method, a roller-like porous body is brought into contact with an ink image to absorb and remove the liquid component from the ink image (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-45851).
As a method of further collecting the liquid absorbed by a porous body, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-61644 discloses a collecting system using a negative pressure. Although a negative pressure collecting system may cause insufficient liquid collection due to an air leak, the disclosed method enables efficient liquid collection by filling a porous body with a liquid before liquid collection to prevent air from leaking. In addition, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-179959 discloses a system for achieving high filtering performance (preventing an ink coloring material from adhering). In the system, a porous body including a filter layer having a small pore diameter is used to absorb and remove a liquid component from an ink, and the liquid absorbed by the porous body is squeezed by using a roller or a blade.
Studies by the inventors of the present invention, however, have revealed that such a liquid collection system using a negative pressure as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-61644 requires a massive energy load. In addition, when such a porous body with a small pore diameter as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-179959 is particularly used as an absorber, the flow resistance may become too large to collect the liquid. Meanwhile, in the system using such a roller or a blade as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-179959 to squeeze a liquid component, no energy load is required, but the liquid squeezed out of an absorber may insufficiently move to the roller or blade or may return to the absorber. Especially during high speed conveyance, the liquid is difficult to collect.